Trump And Clinton Face Off In First U.S. Presidential Debate

Jodi Schneider

After a little more than 90 minutes of debate, here are the key takeaways from tonight’s event:

• The candidates spent a good deal of time on stop-and-frisk, racial issues, Obama birther matter, ISIS and nuclear weapons.
• Trump appeared to be rambling on a number of questions, especially on foreign policy.
• Clinton made points on the tax returns, with Trump not ending questions about whether he failed to pay any federal income taxes -- an not offering a clear reason as to why he’s not releasing his tax returns.
• Clinton’s answers often were recitations of her campaign statements.
• It was difficult for Holt, as moderator, to keep the candidates focused on the questions. At times, it appeared he’d lost control of the debate.

You can watch analysis of the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Bloomberg TV.

Emma O’Brien

The reaction in financial markets suggests traders erred toward a Clinton victory in the debate:

• The Mexican peso, which had been beaten down to a record low as Trump’s standing in polls improved the past few weeks, has jumped more than 1 percent versus the greenback today, leading gains among major currencies in the Tuesday session.
• The Canadian dollar, which some strategists have said has been weakening recently on Trump’s better odds, reversed declines and is now up despite losses in crude oil (the country’s top export).
• U.S. stock-index futures climbed, with S&P 500 Index e-mini futures rising about 0.6 percent.
• The yen, a classic haven play, erased early gains to fall as much as 0.5 percent against the dollar; Gold is also declining - snapping a six-day rally.

Tal Barak Harif

First Presidential Debate Between Clinton, Trump Ends

Paula Dwyer

I have no doubt that Clinton won this debate. Trump wasn’t as polished and didn’t have ready the facts, figures and geopolitical context that she provided. She wielded her policy positions in effective ways, without resorting to recitation. He interrupted her too often and relied too much on his “tell, not show” mannerisms.

Jodi Schneider

Trump says ‘’we cannot be the policeman of the world.’’ Holt tries to get to final questions and Trump keeps talking.

Romaine Bostick

Fact Check: Trump Has a History of Questioning Climate Change

• After Clinton accused Trump of denying climate change, he dismissed the suggestion, saying it wasn’t true.
• Yet long before he entered the presidential race, in 2012, Trump tweeted that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
• Trump has since distanced himself from the comment by saying he likes to joke about the China connection, though he consistently describes the campaign to combat climate change as a money maker.

Paula Dwyer

Trump says nuclear is the single-greatest threat. Then segues to how Japan, Saudi Arabia and others don’t pay us to defend them. His answer didn’t have the gravitas of Clinton’s on the nuclear threat.

Jodi Schneider

Clinton defends her record of traveling the world as secretary of state and going before congressional committees to show she has stamina.

Romaine Bostick

Fact Check: Trump, Clinton Spar Over Who Supported Iraq War

• Clinton Says Trump backed the Iraq War and the Libya intervention.
• Trump has made a central theme of his campaign that he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq while Clinton supported it.
• But when asked whether he supported going to war in Iraq in a 2002 appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show, Trump said, “Yeah, I guess so.’’
• In a 2004 interview in Esquire magazine, he said “all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!”
• As a senator from New York, Clinton voted in 2002 to give President George W. Bush the authority to wage the Iraq war.
• Clinton has said she wouldn’t have voted for the war if she’d known at the time what the world learned later, that Iraq didn’t have the weapons of mass destruction claimed by the Bush administration.

Jodi Schneider

Trump says he’s ``all for NATO,’’ yet they have to focus on anti-terrorism.

Reminder.

You can watch the debate live online on Bloomberg TV by clicking HERE.

Paula Dwyer

In Trump’s criticism of Obama’s Iraq exit, he says the U.S. should have taken the oil. It’s hard to know by what international law or practice would have allowed that to happen. It’s not like the Iraqis would have let it happen.

Jodi Schneider

Clinton says Trump supported the invasion of Iraq, to which he keeps saying, ‘’wrong.’’

Tal Barak Harif

Clinton says Trump has `cavalier attitude’ on nuclear weapons

Jodi Schneider

Clinton says Trump doesn’t have the ‘’right temperament’’ to be ‘’commander in chief.’’

Romaine Bostick

Fact Check: Clinton Has at Times Praised TPP She Now Opposes:

• At one time called it the “gold standard” of trade deals
• Spoke about benefits of trade deal while at State Dept.

Analysts say Asian stocks have pared losses during the course of the debate (it’s just after 11 a.m. in Tokyo).

Here’s Bloomberg’s global trading wrap.

Romaine Bostick

Fact Check: Putin Maintains Russia Wasn’t Behind The DNC Hack

1. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
2. At the same time, he said the hack was a public service.
3. U.S. officials and a Clinton spokesman earlier this month said experts have concluded Russia was behind the hack.

Tal Barak Harif

Trump says doesn’t know if Russia hacked DNC, could be others.

Jodi Schneider

Clinton says she is ‘’deeply concerned’’ about cyber crime, and brings up Putin.

Tal Barak Harif

Trump says he got Obama to provide his birth certificate

Romaine Bostick

Fact Check: Fed Insists It’s Apolitical Despite Trump’s Criticism

• Trump said that the Fed is ``doing political things.’’
  
• Trump was reiterating an argument that low interest rates have inflated the stock market, and turmoil could result when rates are increased.
  
• That doesn’t hold up to past experience: markets were calm when Fed Chair Yellen and her colleagues raised rates in December, moving them above near-zero for the first time since the end of 2008.
  
• Yellen reiterated during a press conference in Washington last week that ``I can say, emphatically, that partisan politics plays no role in our decisions about the appropriate stance of monetary policy.’’

Paula Dwyer

Finally, they agree on something: People on watch and no-fly lists shouldn’t be able to get a gun.

Jodi Schneider

Holt says stop-and-frisk is a form of racial profiling.

Trump defends the policy, and then again points to Chicago and mentions Obama, and says with all the shootings ‘’you need stop-and-frisk.’’

Jodi Schneider

Trump:

He says you ‘’don’t learn that much’’ from the release of tax returns.

Jodi Schneider

Clinton says she’s ‘’not going to make any excuses’’ on her emails.

Romaine Bostick

Fact Check: Cost of Clinton Tax Plan May Add to National Debt

• Her tax and spending plans would increase federal tax revenue by about $1.5 trillion over 10 years on net, while they’d increase spending by about $1.65 trillion, according to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
  
• Her plan would also create about $50 billion in additional interest costs over the decade, for a total 10-year deficit of $200 billion, the CRFB found.
  
• Those figures were based on a ``static’’ analysis -- before accounting for her plans’ effects on the larger economy.
  

Jodi Schneider

Clinton says this is ``another example of bait-and-switch’’ with the release of Trump.

She says maybe he’s not as rich as he says he his, maybe he’s not as charitable as he says he is, or maybe he ‘’doesn’t want the American people’’ to ‘’know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes.’’

Jodi Schneider

Trump says he will “release his tax returns,’’ against his lawyer’s wishes, once Clinton releases her ‘’33,000 emails.’’

His supporters in the audience cheer.

Also Read
Trump to Clinton: Paying No Income Taxes ‘Makes Me Smart’

Paula Dwyer

She keeps using “trumped-up, trickle-down” to describe his tax plan. She also says his tax plan would help the Trump Organization lower its real-estate taxes.

Paula Dwyer

Clinton’s trade position is complicated. She likes NAFTA, opposes CAFTA, opposes the TPP as it’s written....it’s a little hard to keep up.

Jodi Schneider

Trump says Clinton is going to pass one of the biggest tax increases in country. Says his tax cut would be the biggest since Ronald Reagan.

Paula Dwyer

He says “your husband signed Nafta, the worse trade deal ever signed in this country.” All the economic studies show that NAFTA DID benefit the U.S. economy.

Jodi Schneider

Trump says the country’s energy policies are a disaster.

Clinton:

Trump:

Jodi Schneider

Trump says the country’s energy policies are a disaster.

Jodi Schneider

Clinton refers to the 2008 financial crisis and criticizes the Republicans for causing it.

Jodi Schneider

Trump says his father gave him a very small loan and he built it into a major company. He criticizes China.

Tal Barak Harif

Clinton says need to build an economy for `everyone’

Jodi Schneider

Just hours before the debate, a Bloomberg Politics national poll showed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton locked in a two-way tie -- with each getting 46 percent of likely voters in a head-to-head contest.

Paula Dwyer

Tonight’s debate quite possibly could be the most-watched presidential debate in history if more than 80 million tune in. That’s how many people watched as Ronald Reagan debated President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

LIVE NOW from Bloomberg.com: Trump and Clinton Face Off in First U.S. Presidential Debate

After more than a year of campaigning, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will square off in the first of three U.S. presidential debates ahead of the November election. Trump was an effective debater during the crowded Republican primaries, usually grabbing more than his share of microphone time. But a one-on-one debate with a seasoned politician like Clinton will be a different challenge.

Bloomberg Editors and Reporters will be here to cover the play-by-play and bring you real-time analysis of policy positions, economic impact and poll numbers.

You can also watch the debate live online on Bloomberg TV by clicking HERE.

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Clinton, Trump Dive Directly Into Attacks in First Debate